


When in Doubt Summon Demons

by foofymonkey234



Category: Viva Piñata
Genre: All the main characters will show up eventually, I'll Add Tags As I Go On, a lot of crying in the first chapter, demon player au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-01-25 22:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21363655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foofymonkey234/pseuds/foofymonkey234
Summary: Desperate to find someone or something to help fix her father's old garden Leafos takes some advice from a stranger in the inn to try and summon a good luck spirit. And while they may not be the spirits she wanted, she's certainly summoned something.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	1. Learning how to summon demons from strangers in a bar

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a fun little au me and my sister made up as a joke where the player is actually demon trapped in the garden who heelps fix it up.

It’s a busy night at Arfur’s Inn. A large crowd of people mingle within the building, sharing stories and laughs. The mood is high as the villagers went about their evening, everyone having a good time. Except for one.

“I’ve tried so hard Arfur, I have! But no matter who I ask no one will help with the garden,” Leafos sobs into her arms, her drink left half empty and forgotten as she mopes at the bar. “I just feel so useless, I can’t garden and Seedos is well... Seedos. So he’s no help. And Stardos is, is-“ she bursts into another round of tears. 

Arfur places a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her, “I’m sure someone will come along soon and things will begin to look up young pup. It’s only a matter of time. You shouldn’t be blaming yourself for all this, it’s not your fault what happened. Now why don’t you have a glass of fresh milk to help you calm down?” The innkeeper gives her a kind smile as he gently pushes a new glass of milk into the sobbing girl’s hands. 

Still sniffling Leafos accepts the drink and begins to sip at it. “Thanks Arfur, I can always count on you but you shouldn’t have to listen to me going on every other night,” She gives him a small forced smile. Her hands still tremble as she lifts the cup up to take another sip.More tears drip down her face but not with the same force as of moments ago.

She’s lost in thought about the old garden when Arfur slips away to serve another customer. That garden was her family’s pride and joy and now it lies in ruins. Not even weeds will grow there anymore. Everybody who sees it claims it to be a lost cause or plain cursed. How was she supposed to find anyone to fix it when they all ran away at the first sight of that hardened soil and wreckage of what was once one of the most amazing gardens on the island? She’s put ads in newspapers, promised so many benefits, begged anyone who came. But still no one comes to help. 

Sighing heavily she takes another sip of her milk when someone next to her clears their throat loudly, causing her to nearly spit it back out. She was so distracted by her moping that she failed to notice as someone sat down right next to her. The stranger begins talking quickly while Leafos struggles to calm her hacking and sputtering. “So I hear you’re in quite the predicament darling!” Still coughing she turns to look at the newcomer. 

Strange described most of the residents on this island, but this person gave it another meaning. They were wearing a long dark purple coat with white and darker blue accents, their mask was like that of an old plague doctor with two purple stripes on its beak and two light blue circles next to eyes like tears. They tipped they’re tiny hat at Leafos, it’s two blue feathers bouncing with the motion, “Nil at your service, and I think I might have a solution to your problem. I overheard you mention a ruined garden correct?” They place the hat back on top of their giant, bright pink and cyan braided hair. Their fingers of one hand constantly tapping the counter with no particular rhythm while they rest their head on the other. 

“W-well yes!?” Leafos stammers out in surprise. Nil’s sudden appearance stunned her, as well as their strange outfit and mannerisms. They never seem to sit still, constantly tapping their fingers or twitching their head side to side. Despite this Leafos ignores how they unnerve her and holds on to the slim hope that this stranger can help her. “I-it’s my father’s garden, Jardinero, it was destroyed some time ago. You must have heard about it. It happened a while ago, but it was the only thing anyone talked about for the longest time. It used to be the most amazing garden! But now...” she swipes angrily at her eyes, “now it’s been reduced to rubble, my father is unable to fix it, and no one dares to touch it. Please is there anything you can do?” She pleads for Nil to help, To offer anything that might be able to fix the old plot of land. 

Nil taps at the bottom of their mask in thought. Staring into the distance they hum for a second before whipping their head around to face Leafos, “Weeelllll their might be one thing I could tell you that could help with your problem.” They lean their elbows on the counter, resting their head on folded hands, “buuut I’m not sure if you really want to know.” Their blank white eyes stare into Leafos’.

“Oh please, please, please tell me! I don’t have much but I could offer some cash o-or some favors or info. Just please tell me how to fix this!” Leafos claps her hands together as she pleads with the stranger, her eyes shining with desperate hope and unshed tears.

Nil springs straight up, clapping their gloved hands together loudly, “Alright you’ve convinced me! Now here’s what you gotta do...”

~~~~

The night is silent, all the piñata have long found places to rest and the nocturnal creatures have long learned to avoid the garden where nothing grows. All the villagers have gone to their homes to sleep except for one, Leafos. 

She sticks her tounge out as she carefully pours a line of salt between two boulders. Concentrating, trying to get it as straight as possible, to create a perfect square around the ruined garden. With a huff she sets the heavy bag down and inspects her work.

She lets out a heavy sigh as her face darkens, “oh I hope this will work, I truly have nothing else to try…” She shakes her head to chase away the thoughts, “No this has to work! It will work!” With renewed determination she reads the next step off the list given to her by the stranger at the Inn.

“... draw this rune in the middle of your garden and place your contract and the candy in the center of it. Chant this phrase… during which the rune will catch fire and summon the spirit to your garden. They are then bound by your contract and will bring good fortune to your garden.’ Alright simple enough!” She traces the symbol into the dirt with quick practiced strokes of the chalk. It's like copying a piñata in real life onto paper but simpler. It’s easier when the subject you’re drawing isn’t constantly moving. Looking at the drawing she taps her cheek before making a few corrections.

She nods her head in satisfaction. “There that should do it! Now for the candy,” she grabs the bag given to her by Nil and places two candies on top of a piece of paper in the middle of her drawing. Better safe than sorry after all and perhaps the spirit will give her even more luck for the extra treat! Leafos stands up and wipes her knees off. She carefully reads over the paper again, mouthing the words silently. With determination in her eyes she puffs out her chest and begins the chant.

“Daemonium.” The chalk flickers. “Accipe sacrificium.” Leafos flinches as sparks begin to fly from the lines on the ground. “Adiuva me.” The lines glow a fierce red and violently shoot sparks. “Quae destructa restituere in pristinum DECUS!” She shouts the final word with as much power as she could and flames flare to life forcing her to take a few steps back, she throws her arms up to shield her face. The blazing flames eagerly consume the tributes left in the center of the rune. Leafos hesitantly lowers her arms to stare at the flames in awe. 

“I-it worked?! It did!” She laughs in relief, Hope filling her once more as she thinks of how the garden will be saved. She stands there clasping her hands as she watches the fire and waits for her guardian garden spirit. And waits… and waits.

As the flames slowly die down, so do Leafos’ spirits. As the minutes go by her hands drop to her sides, the smile drips off her face, and her eyes grow wet once more.

“D-did I do something wrong?” She says in a small voice. She sniffles, glaring at the ground. She chokes back a sob, giving a sour laugh, “of course it didn’t work. How could I be so stupid to believe that some random weirdo could fix all THIS,” she throws an arm out gestering angrily at the surrounding ruins, “with some silly little spell?! When I’ve been trying for well over a year now?!” She angrily swipes at her eyes, turning her back to the dying embers. 

“Stupid, I wasted my whole night with this,” she mutters to herself between her tears. Walking back to her home she fails to notice the charred paper fluttering in the ashes. Two names are signed are the bottom. It crumbles in the breeze, ashes floating through the otherwise still night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so wow this took way longer than expected to write whoopsie. Anyways here's the second chapter and as a little note anytime you see Taffy or Star talking it'll just sound like gibberish to any humans.

Leafos wakes up and goes through her morning routine still downtrodden by last night’s failure. She mopely brushes her teeth and hair, mopely prepares breakfast, mopely mopes to the front front door before mopley calling out to her father, “I’m going to head out for the day, remember to alert me if you need anything.” She gives as sigh as she mopes out the door, dreading seeing the evidence of her failure yet again.

She pauses outside the door to look at the ruined garden. The cracked earth, the scraggly grass barely surviving, the broken pieces left behind from the garden’s original glory. All of it mocking her, waiting to greet her every morning to remind her of all the things she’s lost. Taking a shaky breath she begins a slow walk down the path towards the ruined patch of land, trying to fight back all the depressing thoughts. She clenches her fist as she feels hers eyes watering again.

She wasn’t normally this sad but anyone would be hard pressed to constantly be joyous with such a dark reminder outside their door. She always tried to stay positive even in the worst of times, to be strong for her family, But everyone has their downs. Leafos shakes her head glaring at the ground, she wasn’t going to let some sad thoughts ruin her day. I mean sure her father’s garden was ruined and due to his paralysis he couldn’t fix it. No one else would even try, sure one of her brothers vanished and the other now lives in the swamp collecting seeds, and sure her m-.

Snap

A small noise distracts her from her thoughts, it sounded like someone stepped on a twig. But who would be around here? Her father was still in the house and the only other person around wouldn’t bother touching the ground. Glancing up to see who could possibly be visiting she spots a piñata at the edge of the garden. It’s staring at her with wide eyes, one paw in the air as if it paused mid-step. She had never seen a piñata like this before, it’s small with long ears similar in shape to a pretztail’s. Most of it is covered in a large amount of paper giving it a very soft and fluffy look while its tail is whip thin, ending in a triangular tip. In fact it had several small triangles floating around its neck and tail, how very strange. Its patterns seem to be mostly made of triangles and some circles. 

Leafos freezes before slowly crouching down. “Oh don’t be scared little one, I know it looks bad,” she says in a quiet, friendly voice trying to coax the strange piñata closer. “My name's Leafos. I don’t think I’ve seen a piñata like you before.” She starts slowly edging her way closer when it stands itself up on its hind legs. 

Leafos startles a little at the sudden movement and flinches back, absentmindedly noting that it has individual toes instead of simple nubs like other piñata. The creature gives her a fanged grin before looking over its shoulder and making a strange noise, like a garbled imitation of English heard through an old radio. Leafos scrunches her eyebrows, she’s never heard a piñata make that noise before. She’s pulled out of her thoughts as there’s more rustling of plants. Leafos watches in wonder as another strange piñata comes out.

It’s tall. That was her first thought at seeing it. It looks like the first one, if you took it and stretched it out as far as you could and removed 90 percent of its fluff. It’s patterns are slightly different as well, only having triangles and no circles. The floating triangles circle around its ears instead of its neck like the shorter one. This one doesn’t bother to walk on all fours, instead opting to approach bipedal from the start. It’s face is a lot less friendly too, it’s smile looking more like a predator’s sneer as it’s pointed tail swishes across the ground like a syrupent about to strike.

Creeping forward, the creature leers down at the shorter girl. Leafos takes an involuntary step back as it approaches her with the smaller one at its heels. They both pause just at the edge of the salt line she had made the other night. Not quite sure what to do Leafos remains silent as she watches the new piñatas. After a brief staring contest between them the taller one gives a small huff and barks at the smaller one in their strange garbled language. It nods before looking down, a look of concentration came over its face as it held its paws out. With a bright flash of magic a piece of paper appears floating over its paws. After a second the paper rolls itself up and falls into the piñata’s paws. It offers the roll of parchment out to the stunned Leafos.

She looks at the offered paper, for some reason it looks strangely familiar. The smaller piñata’s smile starts to fade a little and it glances at its partner in confusion as Leafos continues to silently stare at the page. The piñata was about to say something when it clicked. She gasps loudly as her hands fly to her mouth. She recognizes that paper! Holding her breath she reaches out and gently takes the paper with slightly shaking hands. Is it really? She slowly unrolls the paper to quickly scan the content within. She can’t believe it, it’s the contract from last night! But didn’t it burn? Does this mean the spell actually worked?! Were these spirits sent to help fix this old dilapidated garden?! She can feel the tears running down her cheeks again as a smile split across her face. She looks up at the two strange piñata with hope filling her eyes.

“D-did it really truly work? Are you here to fix the garden for me.” They had to be, they just had too. The tall one simply huffs while the shorter one nods happily. “Oh thank you thank you thank you!” She cries out clapping her hands together, clutching the contract between them. Her cheeks were starting to hurt from the happy grin on her face and she’s practically vibrating with joy from the thought that this plot of land would once more be restored to its former glory. 

“Oh! Please come in,” she takes a quick step back, realizing she never actually invited them into the garden. She watches in anticipation as they step over the thin barrier. Colors flood to their paper with a burst of magic just like any normal resident piñata. The taller one is colored mostly orange with yellow and red highlights while the shorter one stays mostly white with pale blue highlights. They are the first piñata to come to the garden in over a year, surely this is a sign of greater things to come.

Leafos snaps out of her amazement to slap herself on the forehead as she realizes she forgot yet another thing, “I’m sorry but I don’t think I ever got you two’s names, that was quite rude of me. I’m Leafos by the way.” She holds out her hand in greeting to the two spirits.

“Ḿ̸̹’̴͔̿í̵͖ t̷͖̓à̴̘c̵̳͂y̸̽ͅf̴̣̚f̷̞̃a̸̠̓t̶̨̊ d̸̙͠n̸͖͝ạ̵̋ s̸͕̒ḯ̵̠ȟ̵̝t̸͇̆ s̵͚̅i̸͖̋ t̸̰̊ś̴̲r̴̮̓ũ̶̦b̸͓̒r̴̩͠a̵͉̐t̷̲̽s̵̹̾” the tall one hisses as it surveys the land in front of it, grimacing at the wreckage.

Leafos winces at the noise, “I’m sorry I didn’t quite catch that?” She really hopes this won’t become a problem, after all communication is key especially with something like maintaining a garden. At least it seems they can understand her well enough.

The spirit’s tail flicks in annoyance and it jabs a long claw at the paper Leafos was still holding. She looks down at the now crumpled contract, she had forgotten about it in the excitement. “Whoops,” she mutters under her breath, wincing as she smooths out the creases. Her eyes light up as she reads the two names scrawled on the bottom, “Oh! Taffycat and Starburst? Those are cute names. But uh-“ she glances between the two spirits, “who is who?”

The orange one growls and points down at the top name and back at itself, herself? Hisself??? Do spirits have genders? Maybe, she should ask. Leafos blinks, realizing she trailed off for a moment in her thoughts. She looks at the paper to see which one it pointed at. Oh! That one must be Taffycat then, a fitting name with how lanky it is. So that means the other is Starburst. 

“Great! Now that we know each other’s names I was wondering if either of you had preferred pronouns?” The two just stare at her, glancing at each other with confusion. Starburst tries to say something but unfortunately Leafos still can’t understand them. She won’t let that bother her though as she thinks of a solution, “Oh! I know, I’ll list the ones I know and you show me which one you use by holding up the number on your fingers. Ok?” Turns out garden spirits do use pronouns, they happen to use all of them as well as some she hasn’t heard of. Or maybe she has but due to the language barrier she can’t really tell what they’re saying. Ok so that’s a little confusing, maybe somethings just getting messed up in translation, but it seems the two are content with they/them.

This is a dream come true! This is better than seeing a wildcard chewnicorn riding a dragonache over a triple rainbow! Leafos starts rambling about how great the garden is going to look, making dramatic arm movements while the two spirits watch her. She can’t wait to tell everyone about this! The whole village will be thrilled! But wait, maybe she should keep it a surprise. Wait till it’s been cleaned up a bit before telling people, then they’ll be even more impressed. The two watch her as she paces, muttering her plans under her breath with her smile still in place. 

Taffycat taps their foot in annoyance, waiting for her to finish her monologue so they can begin working on this sad excuse for a garden. Their tail twitches across the dirt in sharp movements as they scowl. Starburst watches the show in slight amusement, it’s nice how happy she was to have two demons hanging around her family’s treasured land. 

Leafos pauses her pacing mid step, cutting off her rambling. She gasps and her hands fly to her mouth, “wait you can’t garden without any tools! Don’t worry you can have the old ones! Every gardener needs a shovel of course!” She can’t believe she let herself get distracted again.

Covering up her embarrassment Leafos starts slowly moving her hands in circles. Her eyebrows scrunch as she concentrates. Colorful magic surrounds her hands, after a few seconds there’s a soft pop as she successfully summons a shovel. Well if you can call a rusty piece of metal full of holes attached to a splintered stick a shovel. The two piñata gape at the ‘tool’, a look of horror in Taffycat’s eyes as she holds it out to them. 

Taffycat grabs the offered shovel in a stunned silence. This is ridiculous! They are a high ranking demon and to be given this scrap metal in place of an actual tool is just insulting! A muffled noise breaks them out of their stunned stupor and they look down at their partner. Starburst is looking at the ground, holding a paw up to their mouth trying to hide their snickers at Taffycat’s fate. Taffycat’s ears fold back as they glare down at the shorter piñata with a growl. Starburst’s laughter only grows stronger, their small shoulders shaking as Taffycat returns their glare back to the tetanus hazard on a stick. They hold it out between two claws like it’s a rabid sour macaracoon.

“I know it looks a little rough but I can promise it works perfectly well and won’t break.” She glances down at Starburst, wincing, “er I only have the one though so I’m afraid you’ll have to share.” She rubs her hand behind her head slightly embarrassed that she wasn’t completely prepared for her gardening spirits avival, but then again that stranger said it would summon one not two. She’s brought out of her thinking when Starburst begins to copy the hand movements she made to summon the shovel earlier. She watches with wide eyes as they manage to summon their own shovel. Much faster than her and not just any shovel. This is one of the highest level shovels she has ever seen, complete with all the upgrades. Both her and Taffycat’s jaws drop at the sight of the tool. Starburst shoots a smug grin up at his partner who proceeds to whap them on the back of their head for showing off. Starburst rubs their head and snickers at their grumbling before de-summoning the shovel.

“T-that’s amazing!” Leafos gasps out completely awed by the small piñata’s show of skill and their ownership of such an expensive tool. She looks up at the still scowling Taffycat, “can you do that too? If you have your own tools that could come in handy.” She watches as their scowl deepens and they shake their head, their tail twitching in agitation. Guess only Starburst has one then. “That’s fine I have the other tools as well for you.”

Leafos proceeds to hand over a watering can in slightly better condition but just as rusty as the shovel to Taffycat, who pointedly ignores Starburst when they summon yet another fully upgraded tool. She also gives them a grass packet and a journal, explaining both to the two piñata. Leafos, too distracted by the thought of how this garden was finally going to grow once more after so long of neglect, continues to explain the basics of gardening to her two spirits, failing to notice as the two bickered with each other.

“I should probably let you two get started on working on this. It’s quite the clean up after all,” she glances at the surrounding destruction before looking back at the two with a large smile, “Thank you, really. It truly means so much to me to know that someone is helping to fix all this. I just-“ she rubs at her eyes getting choked up again, “it’s been years and no one ever tried to do anything here and summoning you two was a last resort. And I just know you two are truly my guardian garden spirits and that you’ll do great work here.” She steps forward with open arms to hug the two before pausing, it might be rude after all. As she begins to lower her arms in embarrassment Starburst steps forward to accept the hug, and the head scritches. Even demons want to be petted sometimes, they are piñata after all.

There’s a buzz and Leafos pulls out of the hug to look down at her alert. Frowning slightly as she stands up, “I have to go run a few errands in the town, you two will be alright on your own for a bit right?” Starburst nods happily while taffy gives a stiff bob of their head. She claps her hands together, smiling again, “Great! I’ll be sure to pick you two up a present while I’m there.” She quickly walks out of the garden, following the path to the village. A few feet down the trail she pauses, looking back to see the two spirits. Starburst waving at her and Taffycat preparing to strike a piece of rubble. Smiling to herself she turns around to continue to the village, practically skipping down the path.

***

Taffycat hefts the splintery shovel and brings it down with a jarring crack on what looks like an old piñata home. They barely keep a grip on it as the vibrations go up the rusted tool. Hissing in frustration they readjust their grip. “Stupid shovel, stupid contacts. Couldn’t have gotten a decent shovel noooo had to use the rusted piece of shrapnel tied to a twig,” they mutter to themself. 

Starburst snickers at their frustration, “you really got the short end of the stick in this deal huh Taf. I’d give you mine but that’s against the rules and this is way more fun to watch.”

“It’s against the rules,’” Taffy repeats to themself mockingly, moving their hand like a mouth repeating the words. They drop their arm and glare down at them. “Oh shut up and help me shorty. I’d like to see you even lift that shovel of yours with those tiny, little arms of yours.” They smirk, bringing the shovel down on the rubble again. It’s a wonder how this splintery thing didn’t break. “The sooner we fix this place the sooner we don’t have to work.”

“Hey! I so can lift my shovel!” Starburst cries out in offense, “not my fault you’re more spindly than a willow tree.” They stick their tongue out as they summon their shovel again. Taffy leans on their own shovel with a smug smile, watching as Starburst examines the tool that’s taller than they are. Puffing their chest out they grab the handle of the shovel before lifting it up and holding straight over their head, it wobbles for a second before they bring it crashing down with a bang! And completely miss the piece of rubble... 

Taffycat is howling with laughter, leaning over with their hands on their knees while starburst gives them a death glare before readjusting their grip on the unwieldy shovel. Now holding the shovel sideways they glare at the rubble with determination in their eyes. Hefting up the tool they manage to swing it like a baseball bat into the side of the old house causing it to completely shatter in one hit. They turn to Taffycat with a smug grin. “Told ya I could.” They turn to start grabbing the now much smaller broken pieces of the home and getting rid of them with magic, “and don’t be such a grump butt, this assignment could actually be a bit fun after we deal with this mess. And it should be an easy one too with plenty of room for interpretation.” They flash Taffycat mischievous grin.

Taffy rolls their eyes, “whatever short stack. Since you’re so good with that shovel I’ll let you focus on the rest of the rubble while I deal with the petrified dirt here.” They gesture to the patches of hardened soil filling the garden. They poke at it with their foot, pulling their ears back with a grimace, “yeesh, how does this even happen it’s literally stone! How do you manage to turn dirt to stone in less than a few years?!” Sighing they heft their dingy shovel up, and pouring some magic in it, bring it back down to smash into the hardened soil. Repeating the process they slowly begin to turn it back into normal, fertile soil. It’s slow going but the two manage to clean up the old garden bit by bit. 

About halfway through the clean up Taffycat stands up straight, their ears twitching as they hear a noise near the edge of the garden. Before they turn to look at it they sense the new alert they got go off from within the pocket space they had stashed it in, distracting them from the noise. Summoning the device they look down at the new message. Starburst, noticing this, pauses and walks over to them, “whatcha doing Taf?”

Taffycat turns the alert so Starburst could see it, looking to where they heard the noise, “new piñata or something just showed up.”

“Already?! That's great! I wonder what it looks like?” Starburst’s tail starts wagging as they smile with excitement, glancing towards where Taffycat was looking. A small black and white whirlm pokes its head out of the grass, looking around to check for predators. Starburst holds their paws up to their mouth to muffle their gasp as the little piñata rolls up to the edge of the garden and pauses. It looks at the two watching demons before scooting warily across the border and into the freshly made dirt. Starburst gives a muffled squeal as they bounce on their feet, waiting to see what the piñata’s decision would be. 

The whirlm takes its time to access the soil with a critical wormy eye. Seeming satisfied with the dirt magic surrounds the piñata as it begins to change colors, becoming the garden's very first resident. Barring the two demons of course. Starburst squeals in delight and darts forward. The poor whirlm gives a squeak as it’s snatched up by the eager demon. They run back to Taffycat, triumphantly holding the tiny piñata up with their short arms, jumping up and down to show them. “Look look look! Isn’t it adorable?! It’s our first piñata!!”

Taffy looks down at the two small creatures before a slow, evil grin crosses their face. They lean down to look Starburst in the eyes, “I say we smash it. Celebrate our first success with some fresh candy.” He pokes the whirlm with a single claw as it begins shaking in Starburst’s hands.

Starburst pulls the terrified whirlm to their chest with an offended gasp, “we are NOT going to smash him. He’s my worm and I’m naming him Mr. Wiggles.” They place their beloved Mr. Wiggles on their head with a huff and glare up at Taffycat with their tiny fists on their hips, “if you hurt one paper on any of my whirlms little heads I’ll steal your kneecaps.” They make a dramatic turn on their heel and walk off to continue their work, Mr. Wiggles turning to stick it’s tongue out at him.

“What? I was joking! Well, mostly,” Taffycat snorts to themself before turning back to their own job, “I swear if he fills this dirt patch with nothing but whirlms I’m gonna leave, contract or no contract.” 

As Taffycat works they soon spot a second whirlm coming into the garden and deciding to stay as well. They desummon their shovel and start to casually walk over to the new piñata. The small paper worm looks up from its dirt inspection to see the tall, very very tall, demon leering down at it with a less than comforting smile. It gulps before trying to dive into the safety of the ground. It’s not quick enough, giving a loud squeak of terror as Taffycat snatches it off the ground. It continues giving panicked squeaks as Taffycat turns towards where their partner is still working on smashing junk.

“Hey Star! Catch! “ They yell before launching the second whirlm at them like a papery missile. 

Starburst turns at their shout just in time to react quick enough to try and catch the living projectile. They give a small grunt as the worm shaped football hits them in the chest. Their face breaks into a joyous grin as they look over their newest worm buddy, “another one?! You shall be Lord Teddington Abigail Winfrey Vonchesterfield the third. Ted for short!” They place the still shaking whirlm on their shoulder with a happy hum as they return their job of smashing things.  
  
***

After a long time of smashing and pounding all the rubble has been cleared and the soil revitalized. One short break later the two begin their work on pouring down the grass, Starburst making sure to keep a patch of dirt for his whirlms, when Leafos returns. 

She’s typing on her alert as she walks up the path, hitting send as she looks up. She stops dead in her tracks, one foot stilled mid step. Her hands move to her mouth as she looks at the grassy land in front of her. She can’t believe it, after so long since the disaster the garden was finally clean again. Sure it was nothing more than a patch of grass and some dirt at the moment, but it’s such a huge improvement compared to what it’s looked like for so long. It means so much to her to see that grass, to see the fresh dirt, to finally be rid of the broken pieces of the old garden. It means that it is possible to bring back the garden, to care and tend to it until it can stand with the same glory it used to, that it can heal.

Spotting her staring Starburst waves to her still covered in their whirlms. She slowly walks into the garden, staring around it in wonder. She looks down at starburst, “oh I see you’ve made some new friends.” She starts giggling, which turns into laughing that only gets louder until she’s clutching her sides gasping in as the laughter slows down. Starburst looks at her in concern as she wipes the tears from her eyes. She gives a final small laugh before saying quietly, “I’m sorry about that. It’s been a while since I had a good laugh. Thank you.”

She looks around them again, “You two did an amazing job! You even managed to get two whirlms while I was away! I’m so proud! And like I said I have a present for you.” She holds out her hands, showing off the two small seeds, “I know it’s not much for all your hard work but with these you can attract even more piñata! And these two are easy to grow and should be good for learning how to care for plants.” She smiles as they each take a seed. As the two inspect their gifts Leafos looks down at her alert again. “It’s gotten late and I need to go make dinner for my father but tomorrow I’ll introduce you to the other villagers and show you where to get more supplies.”

“You’ll be fine out here right, or do you need somewhere to sleep,” her smile falters as she realizes she never thought of where her guardian garden spirits were going to stay for the night, or when it rains, or. Her thoughts are cut off as Starburst shakes their head and makes a cheerful noise. She still has no idea what they’re trying to say but she thinks that means they have their own plans for the night, “well good luck with the gardening then. I’ll see you in the morning.” She turns and begins to head back to her home, waving goodbye as she leaves.

Taffycat turns to Starburst once she’s gone and raises an eyebrow. “So are we just supposed to sleep on the ground like a wild piñata then?” They say, unimpressed with the lack of a shelter.

Starburst rolls their eyes and tosses their seed to Taffycat. “You know we don’t need sleep, besides we can probably build something or get someone else to do it for us. Like whoever makes those piñata houses. They can’t expect every gardener to be able to make them right?” 

Taffycat simply shakes their head as they plant the seeds and start tending to the fast growing plants as the shadows around them begin to grow and lengthen.


End file.
